Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed a lawsuit today against fetal tissue brokers for illegally trafficking the body parts of aborted babies obtained in Planned Parenthood facilities. The brokers, DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics, were mentioned in undercover footage released by David Daleiden exposing Planned Parenthood’s role in the trafficking of baby body parts. The DA is seeking restitution for those harmed, as well as civil penalties.

Rackauckas charged the owners of the companies with “illegally selling hundreds of fetal tissue products for profit and treating human parts as commodities instead of giving it the respect the law intended.”

Jennefer Russo, Medical Director for Planned Parenthood of San Bernardino and Orange Counties, stated in one video that she provided aborted fetuses to DaVinci Biosciences, which then sold the fetal parts and tissue for profit. Russo also acknowledged that her staff converts to a breech presentation so that the baby can be delivered as intact as possible. The more intact the baby, the more fetal specimen brokers are able to charge. However, changing to a breech presentation during which the baby’s body is delivered before the baby is killed is illegal under federal law. Russo also admitted that her abortionists did not use digoxin to stop the tiny hearts of their victims prior to delivery, in order to preserve their organs for procurement and sale.

California law prohibits the purchase or sale of fetal tissue for research purposes for valuable consideration, as does federal law.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stated that “People tend to have an instinctive revulsion at denial of bodily integrity, particularly removal of flesh from a human being for use by another and most particularly ‘commodification’ of such conduct, which is the sale of one’s bodily tissues” (Flynn v. Holder, 2012).